Some Discontents of American Strategists: Views from a Marginal Man

Abstract

American strategists disagree among themselves for the usual reasons people disagree: They know different facts, have different interpretations of facts, define problems differently, disagree about criteria, and hold different ideologies which color their analyses and prescriptions. Strategy, being a "soft science" with its civilian practitioners and an "art" with its military professionals, lacks those good starting points that the true sciences have- laws, theories, and axioms about which strategists can agree. Even economists with divergent social values agree on the law of diminishing returns to scale. But when strategists debate-when they reveal, too often by implication only, their enduring discontents-it is especially tough for their audience to know where they are going, not knowing where they started.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 1983
Accession Number
ADA518356

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  • John F. Scott

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  • United States Army War College

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  • Military History of the United States in the 20th Century.
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